Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

That would be rather accurate too.
 
Yeah, I'm looking at other cars for now. Anyway to get things back on track(to randomness I mean):

URS_silber.jpg

http://www.ronal.ch/en/HauptseiteFelgen/Eigenmarken/RONAL/Classic/URSsilver/

What the fuck?

Also, what was the first production car with alloys?

I seem to remember a clip from TG where Hammond claimed it was the Dolomite/Triumph Sprint?

Standard alloy wheels were the first for a British production car on the Dolomite Sprint.

The first use of an alloy wheel in a production car (that anyone can trace) is the 1924 Bugatti Type 35, but it doesn't seem to have caught on - and the Type 35 was more of a homologation special than a full production car anyway.

The first volume use of alloy wheels was by Panhard in the immediate post-WW2 period, but like the Bugatti, it was essentially an alloy brake drum comprising the bolted to a steel rim. The first production/standard alloy wheel as we'd recognize it today (a wheel without integrated brake drum) would be the 1955 Cadillac Saber-Spoke wheels, offered until 1958 (another Cadillac first!)

55_Cadillac_Eldorado_Conv_DV-06_PBI_07.jpg


The 1963 Corvette Grand Sport had Halibrand magnesium alloy wheels in its race configuration (could be bought from the factory, and a first here, too) and optional Kelsey-Hayes aluminum alloy wheels. In the same year (1962) Abarth began offering optional aluminum alloy wheels on their models.

Edit: And while we're on the subject of Top Gear assertions about British Car X having the first Y in a production car (and being wrong!), James May asserted that the 1975-up Austin Princess was the first car to come standard with hidden wipers. Not so, the entire Cadillac lineup got them in 1968, after certain models got them earlier or as options. I'm sure there are even earlier examples in the US car industry (though I don't know of any off hand.)
 
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This video rather accurately portrays what my car went through when I commuted through Lowell.

FTFY

Sorry, but I can't help but think about the roads in Lowell when I see that video.

Especially around the 0:25 and 0:30 marks. Lots of potholes, crowned road intersections that you can catch air on going the speed limit, and cobblestones.
 
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Pft. Gloucester is worse. Until they recently repaved my friend lived on a street that had more potholes than pavement. :lol:
 
Edit: And while we're on the subject of Top Gear assertions about British Car X having the first Y in a production car (and being wrong!), James May asserted that the 1975-up Austin Princess was the first car to come standard with hidden wipers. Not so, the entire Cadillac lineup got them in 1968, after certain models got them earlier or as options. I'm sure there are even earlier examples in the US car industry (though I don't know of any off hand.)

A friend with a 68 Chevelle has the obscured wipers. He made the same observation to me a couple years ago. I'd assume they will have had them from the start of that body style, though I don't know what years that would be.
 
^ 68 was the first year of that body style for the Chevelle.

Also, pretty much any "firsts" that are attributed to safety or comfort can just about be garuntee'd it came from Cadillac or Mercedes.
 
Pretty much until 1970 GM invented everything.
 
Your favorite automotive device, statistically saving seven lives per second.

https://pic.armedcats.net/n/na/narf/2011/05/03/500px-Seatbelt.svg.png

Meh, I prefer being thrown clear of the accident







J/K
 
Your favorite automotive device, statistically saving seven lives per second.

https://pic.armedcats.net/n/na/narf/2011/05/03/500px-Seatbelt.svg.png

1. He didn't invent the seatbelt.
2. He didn't invent the three point seatbelt. Sorry to burst your bubble there, but it was patented in 1955 by Americans Roger W. Griswold and Hugh DeHaven. US patent number 2,710,649 - from which Bohlin's patent 3,043,625 was derived.
3. In fact, many of the ideas of modern automobile safety were invented or presaged by one Dr. C. Hunter Shelden of Pasadena, California. His article in the November '55 issue of the Journal Of The American Medical Association recommended such things as roll bars, reinforced roofs and door latches as well as passive restraints like airbags. He also invented the (more important) retractable self tensioning safety belt. All of these things were revolutionary ideas at the time.

And yeah, we need to dump those in favor of four or five point harnesses already... but the law says we can't have anything but those old stone-age three pointers in new cars. Thanks a lot, Congress!
 
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This is about safety firsts in cars. Bohlin did just that, first production cars with three point seatbelts from Volvo.

Maybe, but he didn't invent the three point belt, just made off with the idea, modified it a bit and installed them in Volvos. He was not the inventor of the three point seatbelt, just the person who popularized them - much like Steve Jobs is not the inventor of the tablet computer, but he and his company has certainly popularized it. Idiots claiming Steve Jobs invented the tablet are just as wrong as the assertion that Bohlin invented the three point seat belt. First use as standard equipment? Yes, full credit. Inventor? No.
 
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And yeah, we need to dump those in favor of four or five point harnesses already... but the law says we can't have anything but those old stone-age three pointers in new cars. Thanks a lot, Congress!

there's a reason for that, you know

if they were to put in a roll cage, crumple zones would become ineffective and occupants would die because of impact.
but since roll cages are banned, and a car rolls, the roof get's dented in. with a 4 point harnass your head has nowhere to go and you break your neck.
with a 3 pointer tilt to the center, and survive in a flattened car...
 
A vertical hoop or other reinforcement band doesn't exactly hamper the crumple zones from working. Also, Ford recently found that the standard three point seatbelt does not keep the head from hitting the roof in any rollover test. Even with the best pretensioners, the seat occupant's head hits the roof and the neck gets visibly compressed. (With the Ford Explorer debacle, they have many reasons to research rollover safety.)

There's also the 'submarining' issue and the issue (more common with females) where the shoulder belt does not restrain upward movement. Finally, the torquing action where the body rotates around the single shoulder belt has (in the past, anyway) been an issue for airbag designers.
 
I know a few women, all around 5'5", that would much rather use a 4 point harness instead of an uncomfortable shoulder belt.
 
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